2017 MTV Movie and TV Awards nominations announced in new progressive categories

When it comes to the movie awards scene, the Oscars are undoubtedly the granddaddy of them all. A boring old granddaddy who everybody publicly pays lots of respect, but secretly a lot of people actually just want to see shuttled off to a home along with his antiquated and embarrassing world views. On the opposite end of the spectrum in this awards family, you have the MTV Movie Awards – the hip awards show that is actually about what the young people enjoy.

While often dismissed by the more serious of the movie press as nothing but a popularity contest and not a true reflection on the filmmaking quality at hand, the MTV Movie Awards is actually doing some serious growing up this year. Yes, you’re still way more likely to find a Transformers movie being honoured rather than the latest thespian star-studded Terrence Mallick dramatic opus, but now the awards has looked at the diversity crisis engulfing Hollywood and actually decided to do something about it.

The list of 2017 nominations was released last night, and the most notable change is that they’ve now combined actors, both male and female, into one gender neutral category. This is actually applied across several categories, including a gender neutral Best Hero, Best Villain and more. And I just cannot think of why this hasn’t been done before. Why can’t we see Christian Bale compete against Tilda Swinton, or Daniel Day Lewis go up against Meryl Streep? The genitalia of these performers have absolutely nothing to do with their talent! (/rant over)

Another bit of inclusion – although a different type of inclusion this time – is that for the first time, MTV will not just be honouring TV series as well, but they’ve even had the TV series and movies competing head-to-head in several categories. With the current “Golden Age of Television” attracting AAA Hollywood talent and showing off big production values that put many blockbuster feature films to shame, this is actually a pretty good move. There are still medium-specific categories, but now people can actually pick whether Grant Gustin’s Flash or Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso are the better heroes.

And speaking of choices, here is the full list of nominees, which is led by the incredible Get Out with its six nominations:

Movie of the Year

Beauty and the Beast

Get Out

Logan

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

The Edge of Seventeen

Show of the Year

Atlanta

Game of Thrones

Insecure

Pretty Little Liars

Stranger Things

This Is Us

Best Kiss

Ashton Sanders & Jharrel Jerome — Moonlight

Emma Stone & Ryan Gosling — La La Land

Emma Watson & Dan Stevens — Beauty and the Beast

Taraji P. Henson & Terrence Howard — Empire

Zac Efron & Anna Kendrick — Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates

Best Villain

Allison Williams — Get Out

Demogorgon — Stranger Things

Jared Leto — Suicide Squad

Jeffrey Dean Morgan — The Walking Dead

Wes Bentley — American Horror Story: Roanoke

Best Host

Ellen DeGeneres — The Ellen DeGeneres Show

John Oliver — Last Week Tonight

RuPaul — RuPaul’s Drag Race

Samantha Bee — Full Frontal With Samantha Bee

Trevor Noah — The Daily Show

Best Documentary

13th

I Am Not Your Negro

OJ: Made in America

This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous

TIME: The Kalief Browder Story

Best Reality Competition

America’s Got Talent

MasterChef Junior

RuPaul’s Drag Race

The Bachelor

The Voice

Best Actor in a Movie

Daniel Kaluuya — Get Out

Emma Watson — Beauty and the Beast

Hailee Steinfeld — The Edge of Seventeen

Hugh Jackman — Logan

James McAvoy — Split

Taraji P. Henson — Hidden Figures

Best Actor in a Show

Donald Glover — Atlanta

Emilia Clarke — Game of Thrones

Gina Rodriguez — Jane The Virgin

Jeffrey Dean Morgan — The Walking Dead

Mandy Moore — This Is Us

Millie Bobby Brown — Stranger Things

Best Comedic Performance

Adam DeVine — Workaholics

Ilana Glazer & Abbi Jacobson — Broad City

Lil Rel Howery — Get Out

Seth MacFarlane — Family Guy

Will Arnett — The LEGO Batman Movie

Best Hero

Felicity Jones — Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Grant Gustin — The Flash

Mike Colter — Luke Cage

Millie Bobby Brown — Stranger Things

Stephen Amell — Arrow

Taraji P. Henson — Hidden Figures

Tearjerker

Game of Thrones — Hodor’s death

Grey’s Anatomy — Meredith tells her children about Derek’s death

Me Before You — Will tells Louisa he can’t stay with her

Moonlight — Paula tells Chiron that she loves him

This Is Us — Jack and Randall at karate

Next Generation

Chrissy Metz

Daniel Kaluuya

Issa Rae

Riz Ahmed

Yara Shahidi

Best Duo

Adam Levine & Blake Shelton — The Voice

Daniel Kauuya & Lil Rel Howery — Get Out

Brian Tyree Henry & Lakeith Stanfield — Atlanta

Hugh Jackman & Dafne Keen — Logan

Josh Gad & Luke Evans — Beauty and the Beast

Martha Stewart & Snoop Dogg — Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party

Best American Story

Blackish

Fresh Off The Boat

Jane The Virgin

Moonlight

Transparent

Best Fight Against the System

Get Out

Hidden Figures

Loving

Luke Cage

Mr. Robot

The newly dubbed annual MTV Movie and TV Awards for 2017 will air on 7 May, in a show hosted by funnyman Adam DeVine. The categories are not voted on by industry pundits, but rather by the US public, with voting having opened last night.

A man of many passions - but very little sleep - I've been geeking out over movies, video games, comics, books, anime, TV series and lemon meringues as far back as I can remember. So show up for the geeky insight, stay for the delicious pastries.

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